


Open my chest and color my spine

by thegoddessinzerogravity



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: F/F, Ice Skating, Prompt Fill, figure skating AU, leia argues with everyone she likes it's science, rarepair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-14 08:14:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9170296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegoddessinzerogravity/pseuds/thegoddessinzerogravity
Summary: Written for the anonymous prompt of "femslash rarepair of your choice, pair skating au."In which Sabine is afraid to let go and Leia doesn't trust just anyone to catch her. Literally and figuratively.





	

In any other situation, Leia would have been thoroughly distracted by the presence of a very pretty girl standing so close to her on the rink.

In _this_ particular situation, though, all she could dredge up was intense annoyance at the other skater's attitude. She wasn't acting even remotely apologetic that she'd just derailed what otherwise would have been a perfect practice routine. And now both of them were getting chewed out by their coach. All thanks to Sabine Wren.

Leia could practically see the headache forming beneath their instructors forehead. She was probably already immensely regretting pairing up the two most headstrong girls on the entire team. Well, it certainly wasn't her fault that Sabine couldn't follow directions.

"And you, Leia. This isn't entirely Sabine's fault. There are things you need to start working on too to make the routine really perfect. Get to it!" Outrage at this somehow being pinned on _her_ started to build. "I'm not the one who went completely off the book and changed the moves halfway through, with no warning!"

Speaking over Sabine's protests that she'd been _improving_ the routine, the instructor said "You need to learn how to fall, Leia. How is Sabine supposed to catch you and move on with the skating if you're not hitting that movement right? Falling means falling, not half bending over and expecting your partner to take up the slack."

Sabine gave her a smug glare, and Leia felt heat starting to rise in her cheeks. The coach just sighed, and checked her watch. "Okay, girls. We have just enough time to practice the ending move one more time. Remember what I said!"

As Leia started to awkwardly stump back to the rink, she felt Sabine bump against her from behind. "You know, I'm not going to let you fall. You don't have to worry about whether or not I'll catch you."

She didn't respond, just gripped the wall for balance as she slid back onto the ice. Sabine hopped on next to her, and offered her hand. Leia reluctantly grabbed it, and let the other girl start to pull her across the rink. They started to fall into a familiar pattern, and the burning of anger and annoyance deep in her stomach started to fade. They'd done the routine so many times she could probably execute it in her sleep.

Sabine started to turn in a tighter circle, and Leia felt her stomach clench in anxiety for what was coming next. She swayed through the next few moves on auto pilot, and as Sabine darted closer and held out her arms for her to fall into, she started to lean backwards and relaxing her legs-

Just as she brushed against the other girl's arms, her entire body jerked and her back snapped back up, sending her flying upright and Sabine crashing straight into her. The next second was a blur of the ice, skates, and Sabine's hair before the world reorganized itself, and she was lying flat on her back with her legs sprawled put beneath her. With a very angry Sabine lying on top of her.

They both frantically scrambled to untangle themselves, Leia furiously working to conceal the blush covering most of her face from such close contact with her. As soon as they had righted themselves, Sabine shoved her in the chest, sending her spinning back a few feet. "What the hell, Organa! That was almost perfect!"

Leia was all fired up to start shouting too, or give a shove right back when a sharp whistle blasted across to them. They both turned around in time to catch the furious glare of their coach. She seemed to be building up to another shouted lecture, when she suddenly deflated and pressed a hand against her temple. "Okay, you two. Go home. We'll work out your issues when we've all slept, alright. I've got no patience left for the pair of you."

They both stalked off the ring, making a point of ignoring each other as they changed into their regular clothes.

* * *

 

At home, Leia was buried deep in a pile of homework when there was a sharp knock at the door. Before she could get up, there was a familiar clatter of Luke springing down the stairs to greet whoever was on the other side. 

She paused what she was doing to try to make out the soft murmur of voices from downstairs, but before she could hear anything her brother's voice called up "Leia! There's a girl called Sabine here to see you." Oh, great. Leia had been trying to _avoid_ thinking about her for the past hour and a half. She reluctantly rolled out of bed and stalked downstairs, fully prepared to give her a piece of her mind. 

Luke immediately recognized that his sister was on the warpath, and ducked around her into the living room as she arrived at the door. Sabine was standing on the other side, dressed in paint-splattered jeans and a plain black tshirt. Leia was about to speak when she threw up both hands in front of her face. "Truce! I don't want to fight with you, I just want to talk to you." 

Leia gripped the doorway and stared suspiciously at her. Sabine gave an awkward smile. "Can I come in?"

It couldn't hurt. She indicated for her to come in and she hopped inside. Leia noticed her sneakers were covered in marker drawings in a variety of colors, from tiny dragons curling around her ankle to letters neatly spelled out in a language she didn't recognize. It was oddly cute. 

She led Sabine up to her room, and closed the door as soon as they were both inside. They spoke at the same time. 

"Why are you here?" "I'm sorry."

Leia was startled enough to not respond, and Sabine rushed on. "I've been kind of a jerk. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I was upset at both of us and I took it out on you." She was silent after this announcement, bouncing up and down on her feet. Leia bit her lip uncertainly. Now she felt kind of like a jerk too. 

"I think we should probably be friends, at least. Constantly yelling at each other on the rink won't get us anywhere." Sabine grinned at her again, relieved, and Leia found herself grinning back. She sat down on the bed and the other girl copied her, kicking her sneakers onto the floor. 

They talked for over an hour, long enough for darkness to cover the sky. Leia learned that Sabine was a self-taught painter and skateboarder in her spare time, and that she'd considered figure skating to be the next logical step from skateboarding. She could speak Malaysian fluently along with English ("is the writing on your sneakers Malaysian?" "you noticed!"). She was hoping to get an art scholarship to a college nearby so she could stay near her family. She was a fan of 70's rock music. She'd been in and out of foster homes since she was nine, until she was officially adopted by her parents, Hera and Kanan. 

"At home, there's me, Hera, Kanan, Ezra, and Zeb. I don't think Zeb is officially related to anyone, but he's like a big brother. Or an irresponsible fun uncle, more like." 

Leia did some talking too. She told Sabine about her mother and father, a state senator and a lawyer respectively. She'd been taking ballet lessons for years, and had decided it was time to step it up to skating. She spoke English and French, and was teaching herself German and Spanish. She talked about her brother ("is he older than you?" "no, we're fraternal twins") and their old Uncle Ben, who'd been friends with their parents for forever. She mentioned her love of indie bands and Sabine rolled her eyes slightly but didn't interrupt. 

When they were both done, Sabine rolled over to look at her. She'd laid down at some point, and they were both flopped over on the bed. "Y'know, we probably should have done that a while ago." Leia nodded in agreement. "If we're going to be whirling around on an ice-skating rink with knives attached to our shoes, we might as well be friends." Sabine giggled, and she was struck again by how pretty she was. 

Her green-and-blue shot hair made a striking contrast against her skin, and up this close Leia had a good look at her long eyelashes and dark brown eyes.

Sabine squeezed her wrist, and the sudden contact made heat rush to her cheeks again. "I'm glad I came over."

"I'm glad you did too."

* * *

The next day found Leia gripping Sabine's hand tighter than normal as they started to move through the steps of their routine. She didn't feel the familiar bubbling of anxiety in her stomach at the thought of what would happen next, and the feeling was liberating. She felt like nothing could ever go wrong with Sabine holding her wrist, like the other girl was a shining beacon of safety.

Leia raised her head enough to meet Sabine's eyes as she tightened her grip to bring her closer. It was _so_ easy to imagine herself leaning forward to kiss her, grabbing her waist and steadying herself against her on the ice. She didn't think she'd be able to go back to just being friends with her anymore, now that they'd laid in bed together, and she knew the full lengths of the rock band lover and artist and the gorgeous brown eyes contained neatly inside the prim ice skating uniform in front of her. 

Sabine released her wrist and opened her arms, and Leia spread her arms out and let herself fall, almost in slow motion, into the cradle she'd created. The triumphant cheering of their coach was nothing compared to the huge smile breaking over Sabine's face, and the feeling of her arms wrapped around her shoulders to pull her upright.

**Author's Note:**

> title is from 'wolves without teeth' by of monsters and men, which is a very good song and you should go listen to it right now. 
> 
> thank you for reading! i really liked this prompt, haha. i adore leia and sabine and still kind of sad that we didn't get any interaction between them.
> 
> as always, until the end of time itself, feedback is welcomed and loved.
> 
> <3


End file.
